Will an unpaid parking ticket hurt my credit score?

Parking tickets can drop your credit score up to 50 points if they are sent to a collections agency. In today's tough times, more and more local and state agencies are turning over debts to collectors to try to get their money. If this happens to you, the collections agency will probably quickly report the overdue account to at least one of the three major credit bureaus which will hurt your credit score. At this point, even if you pay the debt, your credit report will still show a collection that will affect your credit rating. At this point, you will need to try removing the collection from your credit report(s) or wait for 7 years if you want to get your credit score back to where it was.